CCRB RECORD No. 0021
Dragon Age II
Determination: Explicit — Corruption 3, Blasphemy 3
A companion blows up the city cathedral during a service, and the church answers by ordering every mage in the city killed.
Dragon Age II is the entry where the Chantry stops being setting and becomes plot. The Chantry is a church built on the Catholic model — a Divine ruling from Val Royeaux, Grand Clerics, Revered Mothers, a templar order that polices mages in Circles — and an academic treatment of the series calls it the Christianesque Chantry. The game's third act turns on the Kirkwall Chantry: Anders, a mage companion, plants explosives in it and destroys it during a service, killing Grand Cleric Elthina and the congregation, and states plainly that he did it to make compromise impossible. Knight-Commander Meredith responds by invoking the Right of Annulment, the Chantry's own provision for killing every mage in a Circle. The player is forced to pick a side and cannot save the city.